>> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. here are the stories we're following to you. e.u. leaders are coming to america to get answers about the nsa spying allegations. it is a year ago from super storm sandy, and people are still trying to recover. and storms bearing down on europe, canceling hundreds of flights. >> europe is looking for answers concerning u.s. surveillance programs as more spying allegations are come to go

light. "el mundo" report that national security agency spied there as well. they will now summon an explanation. it comes as an european delegation is visiting the u.s. >> reporter: erica ferrari has more. >> reporter: a nine member of european lawmakers will be in washington this week seeking sense. they'll meet with u.s. government and intelligence officials overall gas stations of widespread spying by the national security agency against e.u. leaders. allegations that president obama approved spying on german chancellor angela merkel. >> i can tell you that the president assured the chancellor that the u.s. is not monitoring

and will not monitor the communications of the chancell chancellor. >> reporter: and it's not just the european who is are upset. over the weekend thousands marched on washington to express their outrage. >> we're against mass surveillance and i'm truly honored to speak for all whistle blowers. >> reporter: the allegations threaten to disrupt foreign policies with u.s. allies. >> i think the revelation from snowdon and the secrets revealed are doing significant damage to our bilateral relationships with germany, with mexico, with the other countries where the suggestion is that we've listened in. >> reporter: but congressman peter king, the chairman of the house homeland security committee said america should stop apologizing. >> the reality is that the nsa has saved thousands of lives not just in the usa but france, germany, and throughout europe. >> reporter: former vice president dick cheney agrees the

u.s. should remain cautious. >> our over all surveillance abilities are important and need to be preserved. >> reporter: and it remains to be seen if that careful diplomacy will go over so smoothly with lawmakers on their three-day visit to washington this week. >> al jazeera, we're live in washington, and the white house has yet to respond to the latest report of spying to world leaders? >> reporter: not officially. we have a briefing coming up in just over an hour to have questions answered on this topic. unofficially as we know with the obama administration they communicate mainly with leaks to the press. the latest one is to the wall street journal which said that president obama discovered the world leaders being surveyed after an internal review discovered that in the summertime. president obama then asked for the surveillance of angela

merkel's phone to be cease. not so with various world leaders if there are other world leaders watching right now you are not out of the woods yet. this is a push back from germany media that president obama was briefed about the surveillance in 2010. not only did the president say that surveillance should continue, he ordered that intelligence come from out of that surveillance come directly to the white house and out of the national security agency. we expect the press briefing from the white house, the official line to come in the coming hours. >> and there is an european delegation come together white house today. what do they hope to accomplish? >> reporter: we should bear in mind that this delegation has long been organized. the european parliament has an

inquiry under way since the edward snowdon revelation. they're here, once again, receiving a great deal of notice. they'll have lots of meetings planned with white house officials, intelligence officials, think tanks and civil society. they're trying to figure out and understand the extent of the surveillance. it's five past 11:00 and they have just finished their meeting with representative mike rogers on capitol hill, head of house committee. mike rogers over the weekend said europe should be grateful for all of this surveillance. we're keeping europe safe, he suggested. so we do wonder what they will be achieving on capitol hill. there is this american push back after all frankly the u.s.

consider anyone they want as long as they're constitutionally protected, even if you are constitutionally protected in the u.s. there are questions about that as well, aren't there. >> thank you very much. and we should point out president obama is set to speak within the next hour. he's going to be making remarks of the installation of the new fbi director. when the president speaks we'll bring that you event live. and afghan soldier was shot and killed after open firing on troops after an afternoon. the shooting happened on sunday. we showed that you new academy when it opened just last week. they're raising questions about plans for long-term training programs in that country. the u.s.-arab league envoy

abrahami. we have the latest from beirut. >> reporter: he has arrived in damascus, and he's supposed to meet with senior officials as well as bashar al-assad himself. he's going to hear what would be the conditions for the syrian government to attend the geneva two conference. the syrian government has been clear all along. it says that this will no they t at the table with any faction that has foreign support. what damascus has been trying to do is trumpeting its patriotic opposition, one that it would speak to, but many in the syrian national council will tell you this is a hand-picked opposition

that in the end would put forward the interests of bashar al-assad himself. so a very difficult situation there coupled by the fact that you have an opposition that is fragmented, 19 rebel groups quite influential on the ground had issued a statement saying it would consider anyone who goes to those talks as a traitor, and that the geneva two talks would be--go would against the aspirations of the syrian revolution. then also you have among the regional players not much of unity there, either. abrahami has been going to saudi arabia. the president of saudi arabia refused to talk to him. it he has angered about russia and u.s. not going ahead with that strike, and angry about syria's use of chemical weapons.

it's a very complicated situation. there are talks about the talks. he is just trying to figure out whether he should issue the invitations to the conference in the first place, or if it is an useful effort. >> britain is getting ready for its worse storm in five years. winds expect to go hit 80 mph. well, it's turning into a nightmare for some people. here is more about the storm and your potential travel nightmare. how bad is bad. >> meteorologist: it's pretty bad. we continue to monitor the storm as it marchs across southern portions of england, across wales as well. take a look at the devastation. you can see trees down across the province. we're going to continue to watch damaging winds, some of those winds greater than 80 mph. that storm really barrels across the country. we also have more images coming

out. you can see a house did collapse. a tree did fall on the house, and that did kill one man. three people so far confirmed dead. again, the major concerns with this storm is the wind and also the heavy rain that is reported that could receive as much as a month's rain in the next 24-hour period. the major threat is across wales and southern portions of england. even in london they'll see heavy rain and gusting wind. we'll monitor this storm as it makes its way across the north sea and make an impact of north and eastern portions of france as well. >> thank you very much. as they say in say in legal circles the trial must go on. that's why the jury selection is underway in connection with the phone hacking scandal. two former editors of the world tabloid are in trial for hacking phones and bribing officials.

phil ittner is in london. what are the central issues in this case? >> reporter: well, delinquent, the central issues are basically a conspiracy to pervert justice unethical practice within the media, and there is some very serious charges that former news of the world employees have been hacking into phones, both the celebrities and the powerful but also just average people here in the u.k. and this might spread to the other side of the pond because there are accusations that some u.s. phones were hacked, and of course news of the world and rather news corporation is an u.s. registered company. that might mean the fbi has something to say. there is word that they're monitoring closely this court case, which has just started

right now in jury selection. but obviously watching to see any revelations that might come out of the court case once it gets started in earnest. >> what are the consequences? could they face any jail time or are we just looking at fines? >> reporter: no, we're looking at jail time. these are very serious charges. and there's also a potential for this to bleed much higher. rupert murdoch denied that he was aware of any kind of impropeimpropriety in the use os to support those who are hacking into the phones. but it was earlier this year that perhaps he did know. there is also the point that one of the defendants here had strong connections to both tony blair and david cameron. >> thank you very much. it has been a year since super storm sandy hit the east coast.

coming up on al jazeera america we'll tell you about the struggles that some people there are still facing to this day. grocery bill? can rare minerals in china affect your cell phone bill? or how a hospital in texas could drive up your healthcare premium? i'll make the connections from the news to your money real.

all next week america tonight investigates the campus rape crisis. >> serial rape is the norm on college campuses. >> i know that when i did report, i was blamed. >> then this friday at nine eastern, we open up the conversation in a live town-hall

event. sex crimes on campus, a special week of coverage and live town-hall on america tonight nine eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> for the first time since storm sandy pounded the northeast almost a year ago. ellis island as you see is reopening its doors to visitors. ceremonies are planned for the popular tourist attraction. john terret is on the island. john, it suffered severe damage during super storm sandy? >> reporter: it really did. it's reopened on the 127th anniversary as the statute to you of liberty and just shy of the one-year mark. it did so much damage here. i could tell you the answers to this. this is the superintendent of ellis island, david lucinger.

david, you and your team has been through it the last 12 months, what exactly has happened here. >> liberty was 75% flooded. ellis island was completely flooded. we lost our entire infrastructure on both islands. liberty was a little bit easier to fix because we could make changes in non-historic buildings. ellis is another story. all of the infrastructure of electrical, computer systems, telephone systems were all in the basement. >> reporter: now the bulk of the work has been done and you've reopened. i'm glad to see people come over from battery park to see you on this sunny day. your artifacts are not here. they're still in storage in maryland. how and when will you get those back? >> they are in maryland. we'll be getting them back after we climate control the building a little bit more. right now we have radiators steam heat going on in the building. we have to regulate those

radiators nor to make each room stabilized. once we do that probably within a month or so we'll be able to bring back the artifacts. and then during the next several months we'll be getting the hb system back in place, and hopefully by may first we'll be completely operational. >> your deadline is may 1st i know. we do now have some figures. the parks department has told us, you have told us what has been the cost of all of this? >> reporter: well, just to do the mechanicals, the mechanicals alone. it's going to cost $21 million. it's going to take 18 months to complete, but once we're done we'll have the sustainable system that in the event we get hurricane sandy two coming back, that we'll only be about two to four weeks to get back up and

operational at a cost of half a million dollars which is substantially different. >> reporter: thank you very much oh for being our guest. thank you so much. david lucingesr has just announced his retirement. but he wouldn't go before the job was done. >> tell him congratulations. tomorrow as john mentioned marks one year of super storm sandy slammed into the coastal areas of new york and new jersey. while some have managed to bounce back a lot of others are just struggling to get back to life at normal. the tale of two recoveries as part of our special series surviving sandy one year later. >> reporter: on a blustery october day with waves prime for surfing, this part of the jersey shore looks pretty good considering the bad that ravaged

the town just one year ago. you can still see remnants of super storm sandy but new jersey has bounced back. >> the ocean had her way with us, but here we are pretty much back to normal. >> reporter: frank owns a bar and grill, a staple for 60 years. d.j.'s was hit pretty hard. >> it broke through all the windows and doors. when we got here the next day, there were pieces of boardwalk strewn all over the place. >> reporter: all in the damage totaled $1.4 million. his insurance paid the maximum policy limit and fema helped, too. that plus a small bank loan put him back in business. the bar had a profitable summer. >> the government did their job. they really did thi did their js time around. >> reporter: because the local government made an aggressive effort to rebuild the boardwalk

after the storm. >> without the boardwalk we would have been toast. >> reporter: rebuilding that one and a half mile walkway was vital to the community. >> it's part of the character of the town. we have 140 small businesses in town that depend on tourists coming in the summer months. >> reporter: it took $10.4 million to build the bored walk from scratch. fema paid for almost all of it. made with synthetic wood and complete with hurricane straps this one is strong enough to with stand another super storm. >> reporter: with its brand new boardwalk and most business owners and residents back on their feet, bellmar, new jersey is in contrast to other shoreline communities slammed by the storm like in staten island new york where people are still struggling to rebuild on a daily basis. still without a finished kitchen one year alert the floodwaters

forced a couple to rebuild their staten island home inside and out, the price tag, $160,000. they say they received some relief from their homeowners coverage but not much from flood insurance and less from the government. >> a year later we were told that fema would not help us. >> reporter: that includes help with elevating the home, something that fema requires for flood insurance. that comes at a cost of $10,000 a foot. and that could be another $50,000. >> we plan to elevate, and we were told if you put down ceramic tile and hang cabinets we'll take a chance on breaking everything. we've been basically on hold waiting for flood maps, getting to get in touch with the architect. it's probably easier for us to walk away at this point. they say they're in it for the

long hall. >> now i have abandoned houses on this side and the house directly next to me for sale and the house next to it they will demo the house. the entire neighborhood has changed. >> reporter: business versus been forced to pull out, too. >> we had actually worked for a really long time to finally get our own headquarters. i've been running my business out of our home, and we were literally ready to roll open the doors for business a week or so before the storm hit. it just came, and it took everything. >> reporter: it took all year for his to get his businesses back up and running because his storm took out his home, too. >> our house was devastated. it was ripped off the foundation. >> reporter: his wife and two kids moved from place to place living off fema rental

assistance until recently. >> you have to reapply every three months. i just reapplied, and they denied me. >> it's just... >> reporter: for them the recovery has been overwhelming. [ sobbing ] while he admits he does not know what will happen tomorrow. >> we do not want to let sandy dictate our lives, and we never will. >> reporter: which is why this mother is set on serving her family a homemade holiday meal, her first in two years. >> that's the purpose of having a stove without even having a floor down yet so we could cook the turkey. i don't care if we sit around the coffee table. it doesn't matter. i'm having thanksgiving in my house. >> reporter: it's that determination that keeps these survivors forging ahead in hopes that some day it will all be behind them like it is for belmar, new jersey, a year after the storm. >> despite the ocean did what it

did, i have a new found appreciation for how lucky i am to live here. i look at the ocean with new eyes again even though i've been here for 45 years now. i'm looking at it every day, and i'm seeing it again for the first time, and i'm digging it. >> reporter: al jazeera. together unexpected voices closest to the story, invite hard-hitting debate and desenting views and always explore issues relevant to you.

>> welcome back. one in five women will be sexually assaulted during their college years. all week long in our program america tonight we're focusing on the problem i in a special series called "sex crimes on campus." joie chen has the preview. >> my head was slammed next to the bathroom door and then into the toilet and the assault provided. >> i remember putting may hands on the sink and looking at myself in the mirror and not even being able to fully comprehend what had just happened. >> reporter: these women say they were raped at a place most of us assume will be a haven of learning and of safety: college. >> reporter: each were attending the unc university of north

carolina at chapel hill. >> is the school blind to sexual violence? >> the interesting thing about the university at a whole they treat it as a compliance issue. >> reporter: one in 20 college women in the united states will be the victim of a completed or attempted rape in a typical college year. according to the national violence against women survey in 2000, the most recent figure available. >> it's easy to put a blue light on campus. it's easy to have a campus security guard and that has the persona of safety. >> reporter: since 2002 the u.s. department of education under title 9 said institutions receiving federal funds must insure education free of sexual discrimination. many colleges and universities say they were unaware of their legal obligation to also protect students from sexual assaults. >> we absolutely put much more

emphasis on preventing plagiarism then rape. that's reality. >> reporter: own annie graduated. in 2012 she and andrea found each other. they began to talk about the issue of rape at the university of north carolina. >> we said north carolina is not a bad place. we said its representation of a larger cultural problem. >> reporter: they began to research title 9, interviewing victims of rape and utilizing social media. in 2013 along with former unc administrator and two others they filed a federal complaint against the university of north carolina at the department of education. >> when you have 18- and 19-year-old men and women who are holding the government accountable for rape, like it just--it's boggles my mind. >> reporter: as for annie and andrea they have turned their or deals into a mission. a mission to bring light to a

part of campus life that has too long been in shadow. joie chen, al jazeera, chapel hill. >> meteorologist: well, top of the morning to you all. it's a very chilly morning across the northwest certainly across billings where right now it is 31 degrees mostly cloudy overcast skies. we're going to see snowfal snowg in billings, the heaviest snow certainly across portions of montana, down into northern idaho. we're going to see the snowfall in the highest elevations, and we have a winter storm warning in affect. we can see anywhere between two to five inches of snow around billings, but much more across the mountains. >> thank you very much. thank you for watching al jazeera america. i'm del walters. "inside story" is next. for updates throughout the day go to our website at www.aljazeera.com. where the news continues 24

hours a day. policies kill civilians in ally nations questions of sovereignty and legality get in the way of good relations. drones in pakistan. that's tonight's inside story. >> hello, i'm libby casey in washington. pakistan and united states have a complicated and often strained relationship. the two countries share vital interest . the stat t